


Sanders Sides: Heroes

by mossdehart



Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Cause we’re just having fun here folks, Happy Ending, Missing Persons, Multi, Some violence?, Swearing, Villain Redemption, a lot of the creativitwins being Morons, but like nothing gorey/descriptive, genderfluid deceit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-27 21:32:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20767271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mossdehart/pseuds/mossdehart
Summary: Superhumans may be a rarity, experts estimate there is 1 in about every 100 000 people, but they sure do exist. It’s fairly common for larger and more densely populated cities to have at least a couple of powerful heroes, or sometimes even villains.The city where our story takes place is not one of those cities. Statistically speaking, there should be at least one or two superhumans living there, but no one has actually met any from this particular place for quite a long time.But now, seemingly out of nowhere, there are villains popping up around this city. No one is really sure where they came from, or what their intentions are, but after the disappearance of a boy named Virgil Shewell, there are a few heroes who would like to figure it out.((Currently taking a depression break from this—))





	1. 1

(((October 12th, year 1)))

It was a stupid, childish, dare; Remus couldn’t deny that, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to go through with it. 

It had been almost a month since the 15 year old twin brothers, Roman and Remus Regulus, had began to develop superpowers. Since then, they had been debating on whether or not to tell people. 

On one hand, telling people would get them a lot of attention, and who doesn’t love that. On the other, they both agreed that they didn’t want their parents knowing; they were kind of jerks, and neither of the twins felt comfortable sharing much of themselves with them anyway. 

But, the twins were still teenage troublemakers at heart. Roman didn’t even consider anything bad could happen if he dared his brother to use just a tiny bit of his power to deface school property. 

As soon as the bell rang for lunch, Remus snuck into one of the school’s second floor bathrooms. Students weren’t allowed to be upstairs at all during lunch, so as long as none of the teachers were close by, he wasn’t going to get caught. 

Remus waited until everyone else was downstairs to shut the door to the bathroom. He slumped his shoulder, letting his schoolbag drop to the floor and watching it fall against a stall. He then kneeled down next to it and grabbed a sharpie from the front pocket. He twirled the marker around in his fingers for a few seconds, getting back up to his feet. 

Remus squinted at the ceiling, putting his hands up in front of his face, framing a section of the tiles with his fingers. He had been training for his entire life for this very moment. Then, with a large grin, Remus began to climb the tiled walls of the public washroom.

Remus sat on a ceiling tile on his knees, uncapping his marker as he began his.. magnificent creation. He couldn’t help but giggle quietly to himself, leaning forward on his right hand so he could reach farther. 

The door to the bathroom opened quietly, and Remus was so concentrated in what he was doing that almost didn’t hear it. What he absolutely heard was the startled yelp coming from the boy below him. As Remus jerked his head towards the sound, his eyes widened and he slipped, falling flat on his back. 

Remus let out a wince and soft grunt, opening his eyes again. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, looking over the boy— boys, there were two of them— standing in front of him. 

The taller boy he immediately recognized as Janus Bifrons. Janus was an 11th grader, a year ahead of Remus and his brother. He was also a member of the GSA, which Roman ran (Remus had refused to join a club that would require him to see Roman as any kind of authority figure). Janus had dark brown hair, a pair of mismatched hazel and brown eyes, and a port wine stain covering almost half of his face. He was definitely kind of an emo kid. Janus wore a lot of black, and had quite a few piercings. He also wore a lot of pins, the ones that Remus could see had snakes on them, and one was a genderfluid pride flag. Janus had once brought a snake he found behind the school into his English classroom; Remus remembered the sound of Ms. Royal screaming down the hall fondly.. 

The other kid, Remus didn’t know at all. He was a lot shorter than Janus (but to be fair, he’s pretty tall) and was staring at Remus with wide eyes, and a hand clamped over his mouth. His eyes half hidden by his messy, purple hair. The kid took a step back, so that he was standing behind Janus. 

Remus smiled at the two of them nervously, trying to ignore that his back was aching from the fall. “Y’all come here often?”

Janus blinked at him a few times. He glanced back at the boy behind him, his eyes scanning the room. Then his eyes flicked to the ceiling, and he squinted. 

“That is a very.. detailed drawing of a penis, Remus.”

Remus gave him a lopsided grin, shutting his eyes and laughing. He reopened his eyes when the purple haired kid began to step forward, standing in front of Remus. 

“You.. you were..” he glanced up slightly, swallowing, “you have powers?”

Remus wasn’t stupid enough to try and deny it, so he just nodded. He didn’t except the kid’s eyes to light up, or to see the small boy grin and start bouncing on the balls of his feet. 

“That-That’s amazing. I-I’m Virge, Virgil, whatever.” Virgil whispered, eyes flickering back at Janus. He tugged at the sleeves of his hoodie, then after a second of hesitation, reached down and held a hand out to Remus. 

Remus took Virgil’s hand, using it to pull himself up to his feet. He glanced up at his half finished graffiti on the ceiling, then proceeded to pick up his marker and school bag. 

“I’m Remus. You guys.. you guys can’t tell anyone, okay? I—” the loud ringing of the school bell interrupted Remus’s warning, and he grimaced. “Shit. Okay. We’re talking about this later. Don’t be a snitch, bitch!” Remus added they last part in on an impulse, almost laughing at the stupid rhyme. He gave the boys a quick salute, before running out of the bathroom. 

Janus ran a hand through his hair, struggling to process what had just happened. But glancing at his best friend, Virgil Shewell, who was still grinning from ear to ear, made him relax. He gave the kid half a smile, grabbing him by the arm. 

“You don’t want to be late for class, Virge.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You WHAT?!”

Remus flopped onto his bed, rolling to the side and tossing his school bag onto the floor. “Okay, before you say anything else, this is mostly your fault, Roman.”

Roman scoffed, sitting down on the edge of his bed, directly across from his brother. “No, no, I refuse to accept any of the blame for this. There is so much that you could have done to prevent yourself from getting caught.”

Remus shrugged, curling into a ball. He rested his chin on his knee, looking at the floor. “Is a couple of people knowing so bad? I thought you liked Jan.”

“I don’t dislike him, but I certainly don’t trust him to keep a secret as big as this.” Roman sighed, standing back up. He began pacing around the room, eventually stopping next to Remus’ bed. “And I don’t trust that other kid either. I’ve seen him around the school, he’s a creepy cookie, Remus!”

“Quit whining.” Remus leaned back, stretching his leg out and tapping Roman with his foot. “Either they’re cool, or they’re not. If they’re not, then mom and dad will find out, then send us away to one of the governments superhuman experiment labs, where they’ll dissect our—”

“That’s enough! I get it! We’re doomed!” Roman threw his hands into the air. 

Remus rolled his eyes, settling into his bed to prepare himself to listen to this bullshit until they see Janus and Virgil again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thankfully, Roman and Remus were able to track them down during lunch. 

Remus was able to sniff them out, Roman trailing behind his brother, nervously mumbling to himself the whole time. 

They ended up finding Janus and Virge at the side of the school, eating lunch at a picnic table. There wasn’t really anyone else around, and that was just the was they liked it. 

Virgil was the first to notice the twins approaching, visibly perking up a little, nudging Dee with his foot under the table. 

Remus stopped a few feet away from the table, hands stuffed in his pockets. He tried to ignore his sweaty palms and swallowed the heavy feeling in his throat. 

Roman approached them, clearing his throat and setting both of his hands down on the edge of the table. He gave both Dee and Virgil a friendly smile. 

“Greetings! I’m sorry to bother the both of you, but it’s really important that my brother and I have a word with you. Would that be alright?”

Janus leaned forward, laying their arms down in front of them and quirking an eyebrow. “No, we’re very busy. We don’t want to hear anything about the apparent superhuman in our school.” They said, sounding very serious as they stared down Roman. 

Remus wished that he could see Roman’s face when he heard that, because he’s sure that it was priceless. 

“They’re being.. sarcastic. Look, we do really, really want to know.” Virgil said, sitting up on his knees. “Like everything. Everything there is to know.”

“Oh.” Roman blinked a few times, collecting himself. “Well, we started developing our powers a few—“

“You both have powers?” Janus asked, glancing back over at Remus. 

“What? You didn’t know—?” Roman looked at his brother. 

Remus blinked. “I didn’t tell them about you, Ro.”

“You-You didn’t tell me that!”

“You didn’t ask!”

Roman covered his face, sighing. He took a few seconds to convince himself not to slam his face into the picnic table. “Well now they’re going to want to tell people even more!”

He leaned forward. “You have to swear to us that you will never tell anybody, okay? You seem like cool people, and we would just appreciate it a lot if you didn’t ruin our lives?” 

Virgil frowned at Roman, putting his hands up. “No, we told Remus that we wouldn’t tell anyone, and-and we mean that. Really.” Janus responded with a simple shrug, looking to be very immersed in picking at their nail polish. 

Roman let out a small sigh of relief, placing a hand over his heart. “Thank you, that means a lot.”

Virgil nodded a few times, smiling and glancing over at Janus. “You guys want to sit down..?” 

Roman chuckled, sliding onto the bench next to him. “Yes, of course. I never introduced myself properly, did I? My name is Roman Regulus.”

Remus ignored whatever his brother was saying, going over to the other side of the bench, sitting up on it in front of Janus. Roman sure warmed up to these two fast. He turned to face them, flashing a lopsided grin. Janus didn’t smile back, but leaned in closer, glancing over at the other two. 

“Twins who both have superpowers? I’ve never heard of that before.” Virgil pondered. “How did that happen..?”

“I don’t know.” Roman shrugged, then put his hands on his hips. “We’re twins. Maybe we both got the superhero gene or whatever it is.”

“That.. doesn’t make any sense.” Virgil frowned, glancing at the two of them. 

“Well, I told you, I don’t know!” Roman laughed, throwing up his arms into an exaggerated shrug. 

The four of them chatted for a long time, only stopping when they heard the bell ring for class. Virgil kind of grimaced, glancing at the time on his phone. There was another two hours of class until school ended, and Virgil was really looking forward to getting to hear more about Roman and Remus, who the 14 year old now viewed as superheroes. 

Luckily for him, the aforementioned twins had a similar idea. 

As Janus started to stand up, picking up their bag, Remus hopped off the table. “You guys don’t have anything important this afternoon, do ya?”

They frowned, glancing at Virgil, who grinned and shook his head. They then sighed, also giving a slight head shake. “No, why?”

Roman and Remus both grinned, and Virgil couldn’t help but be weirded out by how in sync it was. 

“You guys wanna see what we can do?” Roman asked. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roman was so glad that his parents were both working today. 

The four of them managed to sneak off school grounds fairly easily, and from there they hopped on a bus and headed towards Roman and Remus’ home. 

Neither of them had a key to the house, as they weren’t allowed inside alone (they usually stayed with their grandmother when both parents were working) but that was not a problem for Remus. 

Remus ran to the back of the house as soon as they got there, climbing up the house’s vinyl siding. His bedroom window currently had no glass pane, so it was very easy to get inside. Why was there no glass? Last time that Remus had to sneak in, the window was closed, so he had to “improvise” (throw a big rock through the window). 

Roman had walked Janus and Virgil up to the front door, and they were all waiting there. A thump from inside the house made Virgil jump, and that sound was followed by footsteps, someone running down the stairs, and the sound of the front door unlocking. Remus opened the door, stepping to the side with a grin, gesturing for everyone else to come inside. 

Janus stepped in first, glancing around the house’s entryway, a small room attached to the kitchen. There was a closet, and a small shelf where there were a few neatly pairs of shoes, next to a small pile of more shoes. There was also a staircase, where they assumed Remus had just came from, and where he was headed again. 

Remus ran straight back up the stairs, and out of their sight. Roman quickly kicked off his shoes, then followed after him. 

Janus’ eyes shifted around the unfamiliar house, leaning against the wall to support themself as they undid the zippers of their boots, setting them next to the door. 

Virgil leaned forward, glancing up the stairs. He kicked off his sneakers next to Roman’s, looking over at Janus. He waited for his friend, biting his lip and twisting the sleeve of his sweater around his finger. “Hey, J?”

Janus looked up immediately, and Virgil continued. “This is... you’re okay with this, right?” He asked slowly, sort of glancing them over. Virgil knew how Janus could be, they weren’t that great with people (Virgil wasn’t either usually, but he wasn’t worried about himself right now) and he knew that Janus also wasn’t so great with new environments. 

But, as Virgil expected, Janus just shrugged off the question, muttering “right”, and avoiding eye contact with Virgil as they stepped up towards the stairs. He shook his head, following behind them. 

They both slowly walked up the carpeted stairs, into a small hallway with five doors. They immediately both headed towards the door on the right end of the hall, which was the only open door, and coming from inside that room were the hushed voices of Roman and Remus. 

Janus hesitated in the doorway, quickly scanning the room. It was obvious from the way the room was divided that the twins shared this room. 

Remus’ half was on the left. It was messier, with clothes piled up on his dresser, a few old, dirty looking stuffed animals on his bed, many posters taped to the walls and ceiling, and some mysterious stains on his rug.

Roman’s room was definitely cleaner, but was not something you could call organized. Makeup, clothes, props, art supplies, and his sewing supplies covered every surface except for the floor, including his bed. The only exception was his shelves. They were full of framed photos (some of Roman, some of his family, some random artsy ones, etc) except for the top shelf, which was completely empty. 

Roman was rooting around in the closet, mumbling to himself, while Remus was standing on his bed, watching for Janus and Virgil. He grinned when he saw them, bouncing a few times before jumping off of his bed. 

Remus clapped his hands together, gesturing for Dee and Virgil to come into the room. Janus walked inside, and Virgil followed, sitting down on the edge of Roman’s bed. 

“Okay, so,” Remus was grinning, bouncing slightly and moving his hands around as he spoke, “you already saw the wall crawling stuff.” And as he said that, Remus began to climb up his wall, standing on the wall with one hand pressed against the ceiling. 

“But I can also... sense danger? I can sense where and when there’s gonna be danger. I’m basically Spider-Man.” Remus grinned. Roman snorted, glancing at his brother from the closet. 

“Fuck off.” A green apple suddenly appeared in Remus’ free hand. Janus and Virgil were both taken by surprise, and both jumped slightly when Remus chucked apple at his brother. 

Roman reflexively flinched back, but watched as the apple disappeared midair, a few wisps of green smoke in its place. 

“And illusions. I can do those too.” Remus grinned, winking at them. 

“What kind of stuff can you make?” Virgil asked, still feeling some of the adrenaline from a few seconds ago. He tapped his foot, leaning forward. 

“Anything if it’s not too big.” Remus shrugged, holding out his hand again. A green beach ball appeared in his hands, and he tossed it onto his bed, where it disappeared after a few seconds. “Nothing bigger than that, really.” 

Before Janus or Virgil could say anything else, Roman cleared his throat, popping out of the closet while clutching something to his chest. “My turn!”

Roman held up a painting. It was about the side of Roman’s torso, with a thin, dark frame. The painting itself was of a cat. A fluffy white cat, with soft, green eyes, on an aqua blue background. 

Roman set the painting down on his bed, propping it up with a pillow so that it was upright and visible. Virgil turned, the painting being across from him, and smiled. 

“A.. Norwegian forest cat?”

“How do you know that?” Roman asked, sitting in his desk chair, next to the bed. 

Virgil shrugged. “I like cats.”

“Ah.” Roman smiles, nodding. “Remus is more of a.. rat and lizard person.” 

“Jan likes snakes. Has a bunch of em.” Virgil pointed out. They glanced over at Dee, who shrugged and waved one of their hands. 

“George, Martha, Amanda, Marie, and Eve are snakes, yes.” They smiled a little and glanced away as Virgil showed Roman his phone, his lock screen being a photo of Janus and their snakes. Remus moved over to stand on the ceiling above Roman’s bed, and was also looking at the snakes. 

Remus grinned, bouncing a little on his toes, which made him wobble back and forth. “I want to steal them!”

“No, but you could come see them.” Janus said while adjusting their fingerless gloves. They swallowed when they realized that they’d just given Remus an invitation to come visit their home, which they weren’t too sure about yet. 

But Remus seemed excited about that.. so, Janus didn’t say anything else. 

When Virgil put his phone back in his pocket, Roman smiled and wiggled his fingers. When everyone’s attention was on him, a small sword and some coins appeared in his hands. 

“While Remus can conjure illusions, I can conjure real objects.” He sounded a bit smug, and Remus definitely rolled his eyes. “Though, it is limited. Summoning weapons is what I’m really good at, and other objects.. well, they’d need to be very small. But I’m working on that.”

Roman looked excited, setting the objects down on his bedside table, on top of a few loose papers and a notebook. “And while that is very impressive, my other power is by far my favourite.”

He turned his attention to the painting of the cat he had sat down nearby, taking a slow breath before he reached out and touched the painting. 

What happened next was difficult for Virgil or Janus to comprehend, as the cat inside the painting began to move. It blinked and moved its head, looking at Roman, before.. hopping out of the painting, and hopping over into Roman’s lap. 

Virgil stared at the cat, glancing back at the now bare looking painting, at a loss for words. He reached out to touch the cat, and Roman smiled, setting her back on the bed. 

“This is my darling treasure, Jean Mannetti, or just Jean for short.“

Virgil began to pet Jean, smiling as she moved closer, her front paws resting on his leg. Then he looked at Roman, frowning slightly. “You trapped your cat inside of a painting?”

“No! Much the opposite, actually.” Roman laughed, standing up. “She was painted by my mom’s friend, Dot. My power is to bring paintings to life, and Jean is the first painting that I ever did it with. And she’s been our pet ever since.” Roman chuckled, shrugging. 

“Wow.” Virgil raised his eyebrows, staring down at the cat who was currently rubbing her face into his hand. 

Roman got up, moving to the bed. He sat down by Virgil, with Jean between them. 

“I’m very lucky that Remus isn’t the one with this power. Who knows what he’d do with it.” Roman snorted, absentmindedly petting Jean. 

“Bring about world destruction.” Remus shrugged, walking back over to his side of the room. “I’d be like... oh! Her!”

Remus grinned, gesturing with both hands at a poster taped to his wall. Janus recognized the woman on the poster immediately. She was a tall, red headed woman, wearing a green and black outfit, with black spikes, and huge wings. She also wore a large hat, specifically a witch’s hat. 

“Dragon Witch, right? She’s a Villain in.. Miami?” They questioned, crossing their arms.

“Yep! I’ve watched all the videos there are of her online at least once! She’s fucking badass!”

Roman rolled his eyes, watching his twin walk back towards them across the wall, sitting on top of one of Roman’s empty shelves. “And a villain! You’ve seen the ridiculous amount of damage she’s done to that city.”

Virgil glanced up at at a similar poster on Roman’s half of the room. It was obviously created by the same person who made the Dragon Witch poster, but this one was of an adult man, with shaggy brown hair and a yellow and brown coloured super suit. 

“What, are you trying to say Sandstorm is cooler?” Is Remus scoffed dramatically, crawling along the wall from the shelf, to the ceiling above Roman’s bed. 

“Yes, of course he is, because he’s the hero! He saves lives every day!” Roman laughed, shaking his head. “We aren’t getting into this argument again!”

“Bullshit! J, Virge, Dragon Witch or Sandman?”

“Dragon Witch.” Janus said without hesitated, shrugging. 

“Uh, probably Sandstorm. They’re both pretty awesome, but like, Sandstorm probably won’t try to murder me.”

“Is this really the time for a superhero debate?” Roman asked. 

“Any time is a good time for a superhero debate.” His brother cackled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a Friday night near the end of May, the group planned a sleepover. The four of them met at Janus’ house after school, where they followed their routine of just hanging in out in the-basement. Janus and the twins noticed something was off with Virgil, he was very quiet, and jumpy. Not that either of things were too unusual, but he wasn’t usually so anxious when they were alone. 

Janus ended up sending the twins upstairs to get snacks, so he could talk to Virgil privately. Virgil explained that he was just feeling shitty, not really giving a clear reason why. It was almost 10pm, so Virgil was hesitant to leave, but Janus insisted on walking him. It was only a few blocks away. Virgil agreed to that, Janus texting the twins what was going on and walking Virgil down the street, and back to the apartment complex where he lived. 

Virgil’s dads weren’t going to be home for a while, but Virgil had a key.

“I’ll be fine, J,” he had insisted, shaking his head and picking at a loose thread on his hoodie. “You should get back to Roman and Remus before they make trouble, okay?”

Janus hesitated, but then slowly nodded, stepping away. “Alright. Text me if you need anything, Virge. Be safe.” And with that, Janus headed home. 

Virgil grabbed his key out of his sweater pocket, fiddling with it for a few seconds before unlocking his front door. Once he was inside, and his door was shut, Virgil took a deep breath, pressing his hand to his face. 

He immediately headed for his bedroom, where he planned on scrolling through tumblr for next few hours, or at least until one of his dads got home from work. 

Virgil pushed opened the door to his bedroom, taking a few steps before he froze, feeling his heart drop in his chest. 

A dark figure leaned against Virgil’s window, looking right at him. This person looked at him for a few seconds, before slowly standing up straight, and giving Virgil a friendly smile. His voice was a little nervous, but also surprisingly calming. 

“Hi, uh, don’t be afraid. My name’s Patton, and I’m here to make you an offer. Think you’d be interested?”


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where’s Virgil? We still don’t know. Sorta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about any weird grammar/spelling mistakes  
There were a lot in the last chapter  
And I’m really bad at going back and fixing them

((June 8th, Year 2))

|| He Calls Himself Insight:  
Supervillian in Gainesville? ||

|| Over the past month, people all over Gainesville have become the victim of a supervillian known as Insight. 

He appeared late this April, caught on video camera robbing a local pharmacy. Similar incidents happened several more times, and some people claim they saw him using his power on people while robbing the stores, and seems to be able to manipulate people to do what he wants. These people also reported that this villain calls himself Insight. 

One week ago, 15 year old Virgil Shewell went missing. That night, he was taken to his home by a close friend. His parents did not see them that night, and called the police the next day after they realized that he was missing. 

Today, photos have surfaced of the supervillian known as Insight, holding the arm of a boy that many people think is actually Virgil Shewell. These photos have gone viral, and now people all over Florida are sending his family support and doing what they can to assist in the search for this teenage boy. 

Virgil’s parents haven’t spoken out much since these photos were released. The students at his school have gotten together and made missing posters for this boy, which they have spread all over the city. ||

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roman hadn’t seen Janus in almost two weeks

He had tried texting them, calling them, going over to their house, but no luck. Not that they weren’t home, Jan’s parent, Adri, assured Roman that they was there, but needed some time alone. 

It’s not that Roman didn’t understand why Janus was holed up in their house, he totally did. They and Virgil have been best friends for years; and Roman and Remus were incredibly worried about him as well. 

Roman just wished that he could do something to help. 

He had seen the pictures, and knew with absolute certainty that his friend had been taken by this evil villain. And Roman was determined to do whatever he could to find Virgil, and no one was going to tell him otherwise. He had read every article, seen every picture, and watched every video of Insight that he could find, but there was nothing that would help him figure out where Virgil could be. 

Remus helped too, but his ideas consisted of a lot of “let’s find Insight and kill him” which Roman was against for a lot of reasons. Well, mostly against. The killing part anyway. If they managed to find Insight, or ever actually came face to face with him...

The thing is, before Insight showed up, the twins thought they were the only superhumans in the whole city. Now, their city had a villain, which means that it needed a hero. Or, heroes. 

Roman would never deny that he dreamed of being a superhero. As kids, Roman and Remus’ favourite game was superhero, where Roman would pretend to be the brave, powerful hero, while his brother enjoyed being the evil, chaotic villain. And when they found out they had superpowers, they started playing those same games again, because now becoming heroes was a possibility. 

But Roman was a teenager. He was still in school, and too young to try to run off and join a team of heroes. The youngest hero he could think of was 18, and that was still two years on Roman. 

Roman debated in his mind on what he should do, as he sat on the bus, on the way home from school. He was alone, as he had to stay behind after school for a club meeting. He leaned against the window, and couldn’t help but debate on what he should do. Every time his mind drifted away from this debate, he would spot one of Virgil’s missing posters and get right back to worrying about his friend. 

So he sat alone, with nothing but his thoughts, earbuds, and a playlist that Virgil had made for him. It was a bit too dark and dreary for Roman’s usual taste, but it seemed fitting at the time. 

Roman was dropped off close to his home, and continued the short walk towards it. His mother was home today, he could see her car parked outside, but figured that she was probably asleep anyway. He entered the house quietly, not even bothering taking off his shoes as he heard up to his bedroom. 

The door was open, and Remus was lying across his bed. He had a sketchbook and pencil in hand, and was so concentrated on what he was doing that he didn’t seem to notice Roman enter. 

Roman walked past his brother to his half of the room, sitting on the edge of the bed. He took his earbuds out and set them on his pillow, frowning as he checked the news for the third time that day. 

“Make these.”

Roman jumped, looking up at his brother, who was suddenly standing right in front of him. 

Remus looked down at his brother, his face uncharacteristically and intensely serious. He reached out, holding the open sketchbook for Roman to take. 

“You know how to sew and stuff, right? I need you to make these.” Remus said slowly, as Roman took the sketchbook and looked the page over.

Roman had excepted Remus to be kidding, for the drawing to be something gross or gorey, and for his brother to immediately start laughing. 

He hasn’t excepted actual.. outfits. Two of them, one predominantly black and green, with frills, a green sash, and an.. eyeball? Definitely something that Remus would design for himself. 

The other was something much more Roman’s style, an all white outfit in the style of a Disney prince, with a bright red cape. 

The two costumes came with masks as well, Roman’s a small red mask that covered his eyes, and Remus’ was black, green, and covered his entire face, except for his eyes. 

Roman stared at the drawings for a minute, the wheels turning quickly in his brain. Then he set the book down in his lap, looked up at Remus, and grinning. 

“Yeah. I can do that.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Janus knew that when she left the house, she would be faced with the real world again. And that was difficult to prepare for. 

She would see all the places that she and Virgil went together, all the people that bullied Virgil, and treated him so fucking badly. Not to mention the posters; the missing posters that were all over the city. 

All of these reminders of her missing friend? No thank you. She would rather just not think about it. She would rather sit at home all day with her mom and her snakes and not have to think about Virgil ever again. 

So, for a while, she didn’t. She didn’t leave the house. She didn’t leave her bedroom. She sat in her dark, musty room in the attic, under a pile of blankets, staring at her laptop. She distracted herself with reading, or watching YouTube videos, or getting out of bed to grab a snack and check on her snakes, who she knew were worried about her. 

Janus didn’t plan on leaving the house that day, but apparently the world had other plans. She sat on the mess that was her bed, reading Terry Pratchet from an illegal website while her ball python, Amanda Palmer, chilled next to her. She jumped at the sudden knock on her door, turning as she saw her parent in the doorway. 

“Jan, the twins are here to see—”

“I don’t feel good. Maybe tomorrow.” She whispered, looking back down at her computer screen. Her parent sighed and moved closer, standing a few feet away from her. 

“Cmon, they seem really eager to see you.” They whispered, looking down at the floor. “I know you’re going through a lot right now, but they’re your friends. I’m sure they just want to help you. Listen, I’ll hold them back for a couple of minutes while you get ready, but they’re coming up here whether you want them to or not.” Adri sighed, looking at Janus for a few more seconds, waiting for a response. When she didn’t say anything, Adri simply closed the door, and Janus heard them walking back down the stairs. 

Janus sighed, shutting her laptop and getting off of her bed, careful that she didn’t disturb Amanda. She turned on the lights, blinking a few times before glancing around her room. It wasn’t exactly clean and organized, but she wasn’t going to start speed cleaning her bedroom. Not for Roman and Remus; she’s seen their room so much worse. 

She didn’t bother going to change out of her pyjamas, choosing instead to sit down next to Amanda and wait. She took a slow breath, trying to calm her rapid heartbeat as Roman and Remus ran up the stairs, and were now standing outside of her room. Remus was the first to peek inside, giving Dee a nervous wave. 

Roman and Remus weren’t usually allowed in Janus’ room. She usually made them stay down in the basement, not wanting anyone messing with her things, or her snakes. She still wasn’t completely sure Remus was kidding about wanting to steal her snakes, after all. 

“Uh.. hey, J.” He said slowly, taking a step into the room, followed by his brother. The two of them stared, waiting for Janus to say something. When she didn’t, they approached her. 

“It’s been a while. How have you been?” Roman asked, slowly. He would of sat down next to her, but there was a bigass snake on the bed that he did not wish to disturb. 

Janus shrugged her shoulders, looking up at him. “Uh, fine, I guess? I don’t know. It’s been.. weird. Look, Do you two want something?”

“No, no, no. We’ve been worried about you, and there’s just some stuff that we wanted to talk to you about..”

She sighed. “What stuff, Roman?”

“Ah, well, I was kind of hoping we could maybe build to that?”

“What stuff, Roman?” Janus repeated, a little more forcefully. Roman knew she was trying to be playful, but her harsh tone of voice always caught him off guard. He hesitated for a few seconds, trying to remember the speech that he had prepared for her. For some reason he couldn’t remember any of it. Figures. 

“Ah, alright. J.” Roman cleared his throat, thinking for a moment. “The past couple of weeks have been..”

“Really shitty.” Remus finished, earning a glare from his brother. 

“Yes. That. And.. we miss Virgil. A lot. And we’ve missed you too.”

Janus looked.. surprised when he said that, but then hid her face by looking down at the snake next to her, sucking in a breath. “Sorry” was all that she said. 

“It’s alright. It’s been hard, and we all work through that in different ways. I just hope that you’ve been okay, we’ve been worried. But, um.. Remus and I both agree that there’s more that we can do. We can do more to help Virgil than just.. creating posters.” 

Roman stopped to look at Remus and nod. J hasn’t noticed before, but Remus was wearing his schoolbag. He slipped the bag off of his shoulders and set it on Janus’ bed, unzipping it and pulling out some clothes that were stuffed in there. He laid them out on the bed, close to her. 

Janus seemed confused for a minute, looking the outfits over. It wasn’t until she stared at the masks for a few seconds that she seemed to realize what Roman was saying. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she glanced over at Roman. 

“We have superpowers,” Roman whispered. “If Remus and I become heroes, we could find him. I know we could. We could go after Insight, and make him tell us where Virgil is.”

“Guys, this...” Janus looked back over at the costumes, picking up Roman’s mask, “this is the stupidest idea you’ve ever had.”

Roman blinked, frowning slightly. He didn’t know what kind of reaction he expected; though it could be worse. 

Janus got to her feet, her face serious. “This is a joke, right? Tell me right now that these are Halloween costumes and that you’re just— this is a joke.” She closed her eyes, pressing a hand to her forehead. “Roman and Remus Regulus, you are 16 years old..”

“We know, mom.” Remus muttered, looking down at his own costume. “But listen, like Roman said, we’ve got superpowers. And being superheroes is something we’ve wanted since.. since always. So it’s not like it wasn’t gonna happen eventually. But Virgil is gone, and some other superhuman has got him somewhere, and we’ve gotta—”

“But do you know that? How do you know he’s even alive?” Janus sighed, looking down at her hands. 

“We-We don’t.” Roman admitted, which took Janus a little by surprise. “We can’t know that for sure. But we can hope. I have no idea why a villain would kidnap some kid, but I.. I just don’t think that it would be to murder him. I don’t think Virgil is dead. And I think we can save him.”

Janus stood in front of the brothers, placing a hand on their shoulders. “Please.. don’t do this.” She whispered, swallowing hard. She blinked a few times, and Roman realized that it was because she was blinking away tears. “Don’t put yourself in danger like that. I’m gonna be honest with you. I don’t really.. care, about a lot of things. I don’t give a shit about 99% of the people I know. But you are my best fucking friends. I can’t lose you too.” 

Remus looked down at the floor, unsure of what to say. Conversations with his friends rarely got this emotional. Roman was crying. He had started crying when he noticed Janus was; he just couldn’t help it. 

“I don’t care if it’s selfish or if I’m being a mom, but.. if you think I’m just going to let you go out and get killed, you’re wrong. Wrong and stupid.” She forced a small laugh, letting go of them and taking a step back. She turned, quickly rubbing her eyes. 

“Okay.” Roman whispered, his voice cracking. “Okay, we won’t... we won’t.” 

That was.. partially a lie. Roman knew that he wasn’t going to give this up. Not with Virgil still missing, anyway. But... maybe he could wait. Maybe they both could wait, just a little while. Maybe coming to Janus with this crazy plan so soon was a bad idea. Hindsight’s a bitch. 

Janus looked back at them, hesitating before nodding, letting out a sigh of relief. “Good. Good. That’s.. good.” She whispered. “Cmon, let’s... let’s go play some Smash Bros or Minecraft or some shit.” 

She laughed a bit, then picked up Amanda to put her back into her tank. Remus followed Janus, throwing an arm around her neck when she turned around to face them. 

“Yeah, that sounds good, J.” Remus started leading her towards the door, glancing back at Roman. 

Roman grabbed Remus’ bag, trying to neatly put their costumes away. He sighed softly, hesitating when he picked up his mask. He stared at it for a moment, before carefully setting it into the bag, closing the zipper, and following after his friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere in this city, there is an office building. A small, fairly humble building, that few people paid much attention to. Other than the people that were currently renting it, and have been basically living there for the past two months. 

In this building, at about midnight, a person sat at a desk in a small office. This person was lanky and pale, sitting backwards on a swivel chair; the chair was much too low to the ground for them to be able to sit in it properly. They had a mug of coffee in one hand, and a pen in the other, as they leaned over one of the many journals they had been recording their progress in. 

They ran a hand through their wild, black hair, adjusting their glasses as they stared at the numbers on the page in front of them. They scowled, the mug floating out of their fingertips, hovering in the air near their head. They flipped back a few pages in the journal, eyes scanning the messy scribbles. 

The door near the back of this room slammed open, and the person in the chair jumped slightly. The mug of coffee also shook, sending a few drops falling to the floor. 

“Ah! Sorry, Logan!” The man standing in the doorway laughed nervously, hurrying over to stand next to them. He pulled a few tissues from the pocket of his khakis, squatting down to clean up the spilled liquid. 

The person sitting at the desk, Logan, raised an eyebrow as they watched the man. Then Logan stood up, shutting the journal and glancing at the mug of coffee as it moved, settling down on the desk. 

The young man stood back upright, looking up at Logan. The difference in appearance between the two was fairly noticeable. This man was at least a foot shorter than Logan, and more stout, with a darker complexion and a lot of freckles. They even dressed very different; Logan wore a thick pair of glasses, a simple black shirt, and a blue tie. This man wore round, gold coloured glasses, a pastel blue, purple, and white striped shirt, with tan coloured khakis. 

Logan cleared their throat, adjusting their glasses. “It’s quite alright, Mr. Hart, you simply startled me.”

“Lo, you know that you can just call me Patton.” Patton grinned, chuckling and tossing the coffee stained tissues into a wastebasket. 

Logan narrowed their eyes, leaning forward slightly. “How is Shewell doing?”

“Ah, right, that’s why I’m here.” Patton chuckled nervously, glancing around the office. “He’s doing better. I’m still trying to ease him into this, but he’s doing good. He’s nervous.”

Logan scoffed, turning back to the notebook on their desk. “Then simply make him not nervous anymore. That is your power, correct?”

“Uh, yeah, but... I mean I can’t do it forever. And if I manipulate him all the time like that, he’ll just figure out that’s what I’m doing, and I think that’ll just make it a lot worse. But, um, I think he’s ready to try some more tests.”

Logan looked back up, and looked a little excited when Patton said that. “Ah, that’s very good. Will you and Mr. Bifrons be there to assist?”

“Um, he’s out getting coffee, but I think we can handle this ourselves.”

“Hm.. yes, that will be fine. Let’s go, Mr. Hart.” Logan tucked their pen behind their ear, grabbing their journal and heading towards the door. 

“Right behind ya, Mx. Berry.” Patton giggled, following after them.


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More superhero shit, babyyyyy

((June 13th, Year 2))

Logan stood over a long, metal table. Resting in front of them was another mug of coffee, one of their notebooks, and their laptop. 

Patton was nearby, looking nervously at the wall opposite to them. The wall was mostly glass, giving them a clear look into the room behind it. The room was small and fairly bland. There was a wooden chair, a few rolling carts with different machines on all of the different shelves, and, most notably, there was a person. 

He had been kind of standing in the corner, eyeing one of the carts moments ago. But when he noticed that Logan and Patton were on the other side of the glass, he hurried over and sat down in the chair, his eyes flicking back and forth between Logan and Patton. 

The boy looked tired, with dark bags under his eyes, curling into the black sweater he wore. His purple hair was almost as messy as Logan’s, which was almost impressive. This boy was, without a doubt, Virgil Shewell. 

Patton smiled at the boy, walking over and tapping on the class. “Heya, kiddo. How’s it going in there? You feeling okay, Virge?”

Virgil slowly nodded, as he started reattaching himself to the machines around him. He wrapped some cuffs around his wrist, and one around his forehead. He had been through his so many times now, he was trusted to just do it in his own. 

“Yeah, I’m good. Uh, you guys want me to start..?” Virgil glanced over at Logan, who looked up at him from their computer. 

“Yes. Go right ahead.”

Virgil nodded, hesitating. Then he closed his eyes, taking a slow breath. 

Logan and Patton watched Virgil closely. As he concentrated, the room slowly began to darken, the machines next to him beginning to beep and light up. Logan’s eyes returned to their laptop, while Patton stayed near the glass, keeping a close eye on Virgil. 

Darkness filled the room, a black smog that blocked out the light above Virgil’s head, and any light that was coming in from the other room. 

Virgil shifted slightly, his skin beginning to glow, feeling the darkness of the room spreading. He watched as dark vines began to crawl up the wall, scratching at the glass to the other room. 

Patton jumped backwards as the glass cracked, hands covering his mouth. He started to panic, and it took him a few moments to realize that he needed to do something. 

“V-Virgil! Stop! That’s enough!” He shouted, squeezing his eyes shut. He focused on Virgil, and began to use his power to calm the boy. He used his empathic powers to focus on Virgil’s strong emotions, and to force him to relax. 

That seemed to work, as usual. After a few seconds, the dark cloud began to dissipate, and the vines dissolved. Virgil was panting softly, lifting his head to look at Logan and Patton. 

“I’m.. I’m sorry. I thought.. I almost.. sorry..” Virgil whispered. 

“It’s.. alright.” Patton assured him, placing a hand over his heart. 

Logan clutched the desk in front of them, trying to ignore their shaking hands. They did their best to ignore the fear they felt, telling themself that it was just Virgil’s power, to just snap out of it. And besides the fear, they felt angry; annoyed. Virgil didn’t seem to be getting any closer to controlling this power. 

“Yes. It’s.. fine.” Logan glanced over at Patton, letting go of the desk and straightening their back. They adjusted their glasses, looking back at Virgil. “Patton, you should use your power to keep him calm during this. Lets just try it again.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ever since Janus was informed of the boys plan of becoming superheroes, she’d been sticking to them like glue. 

She wasn’t stupid. Roman made it obvious that he hadn’t completely abandoned his plan with the way he carried around his schoolbag with him everywhere they went, even though school had ended several days ago. 

So, she decided that it was her responsibility to keep an eye on them. Not that she was forcing herself to be around them; they were her best friends, she enjoyed their company. And they seemed to be glad that she was finally getting out of the house. 

Today, the three of them were heading to a coffee shop, a small place in their neighbourhood simply called ‘Utopia Cafe’. It wasn’t someplace that the twins went often, but Janus’ older brother had a part time job there, and they loved coming in to bother him. 

Her brother, (half brother, technically) Remy, lived across town with Janus’ father, so they didn’t get to see each other very often. It would be even less often now that Remy had graduated school. 

The three teens stepped into the fairly small store. Remy was behind the dark, wooden counter, leaning forward against it. There were maybe five people in the store, and he looked pretty bored; though, it was difficult to tell through his sunglasses. 

Remy looked over at Janus and her friends, grinning and leaning down further. “Hey, baby cakes. What are you doing here?”

Janus scrunched up her nose at that nickname, walking right up to him. “Well we were here to see you. Are you trying to get rid of us?”

“Nah. Hey Mario and Luigi, it’s been a while. What’s up?” Remy grinned at Roman. 

Roman swallowed, coughing and waving a hand. “Ask J, he—” Roman hesitated for a second, then looked over at Janus. “J, pronouns?”

“She.” She said, leaning over the counter, resting her chin on a shelf. 

He turned back to Remy to answer his question. “Ask J; she’s the one who dragged us here.” Roman shrugged. 

“And you agreed because you wanted to stare at Remy.” Janus whispered, snorting. 

“I didn’t say that!”

“Sure.” Janus smirked, winking at him. 

“Agh— never mind!” Roman waved a hand at her, walking away from them. Remus grinned, giving Janus and thumbs up before following his brother. Remy shook his head, rolling his eyes. 

Roman wandered over to the window while Janus and her brother were bantering, taking a look outside. Remus stayed close to his brother, scrolling through his phone. 

Roman tilted his head, spotting a large missing poster taped to a pole down the street. He frowned slightly, then looked up, squinting as he saw something up in the sky. 

“I just wanted to see what you were up to, it’s not like you’re busy or anything.” Janus shrugged, picking at her nails as she glanced around the place. 

Remy followed her gaze, taking a sip from a paper cup he had resting on one of the counters. “It’s always slow here. Not that I’m complaining or anything. Makes my job much, much easier.” He chuckled to himself, taking another slow sip of his drink. Then both he and Janus jumped. 

The sound of yelling could be heard, coming from somewhere outside. 

Everyone in the shop ran over to the window to see what was happening. A couple of people had their phones out, and one kid pulled out his phone and began to call someone. 

A figure floated above the street, dark energy radiating from all over their body. They wore a black, loose supersuit, while their skin was a glowing while. Their face— mask? She couldn’t tell from this distance— resembled a glowing skull. 

Janus’ eyes were wide as she stared at this figure, feeling entranced. It was difficult for her to believe that what was happening in from of her was real— she hadn’t seen a supervillain like this in person before. 

She had seen photos of Insight online, videos of heroes and villains from other cities and towns.. but this was so much different. 

She felt afraid. She wasn’t great with dealing with emotions— but she could sure as hell recognize them. She felt clammy and frozen for a minute, just watching this villain. He let out a low, distorted growl, as thick, translucent, black vines began to spread around him, wrapping around cars and chasing after the people that were now fleeing.

Janus took a step back, turning to her brother and the twins. Or rather.. just her brother. Remy was still staring out the window, eyebrows furrowed, but Roman and Remus were nowhere to be seen. Janus looked around the store, her eyes widening. Shit. When did they leave?

Janus bolted towards the door of the shop, hearing Remy yell something at her, and a few strangers too, but she ignored them completely. She pushed the door hard, running into the street. 

Her eyes were immediately at the glowing skull guy, who didn’t seem to notice her. But he was flying much closer to the ground now, and was only a couple of buildings away from Utopia. 

There was an alley next to the shop, and Janus ran down there first. She wasn’t sure where she was going, but she knew that the boys were out here somewhere. 

“I’m going to kill them when I find them. I swear.” Janus whispered to herself, quickly scanning around the back of the building. Nothing. Wait, no, something. 

Janus spotted Roman’s backpack leaning against the back of the Utopia, which was left open and empty. There were no sign of the boys anywhere.

She swore under her breath, running a hand through her hair. How the fuck were they this fast? She headed out of the only other exist to the alley, taking her a few buildings down, and to a separate street. That is where she finally spotted Roman and Remus. 

The two of them stood side by side, wearing the hero costumes that Roman had shown Janus not too long ago. They were watching what Janus assumed was the skull guy, Roman was holding a large sword he had created, and Remus holding two smaller swords. 

Roman took a few steps forward, gripping onto his sword and scowling. “Halt, villain!” He yelled out, in an attempt to get skull guy’s attention. 

It seemed to work. As Janus ran out of the alley and stepped onto the sidewalk, he seemed to zip through the air right past her, leaving wisps of black smoke behind.

He flew through the air, past Janus and the twins, floating in the air a few feet above the ground. He glared at Roman and Remus, seeming to stop what he was doing to stare at them.

This is where Remus decided to act, running towards this guy, gripping the swords in his hands, which Roman had summoned for him. Skull guy seemed to jerk back slightly, almost surprised, but then floated up into the air, a few feet out of Remus’s reach. 

Remus skid to a halt before he got to close to the floating figure, scowling. He acted as quickly as he could, moving to the nearest pole and climbing up it. He got up a few feet, before jumping off of it towards skull guy. 

Roman acted as well, running forward and letting his sword fall to the ground behind him. He conjured a bow and arrow, scowling as he aimed it at the skull guy. But as he was about to fire, Remus jumped on skull guy. 

Remus gripped onto the black supersuit he wore, hearing a small rip. He wasn’t sure if that was the suit, or his fingers, because his hands were aching from trying to hold on. 

The skull guy immediately tried to shake Remus away, as the extra weight pulled him closer to the ground. He let out a low growl, flying up higher into the air.

Remus winced, one of his hands slipping, and he was now holding onto this guy, pretty high in the air, and seconds away from falling to his death. Roman seemed frozen, unsure what to do, then summoned something into his hands. 

Right as Remus’ hand was about to slip, Roman shot something up at them with the weapons in his hands. Remus felt something whizz past his face, and what appeared to be a large rock hit the villain in the leg. 

The skull guy yelped and hissed in pain, moving away from the street, quickly slamming into a building. 

This is where Remus let go of the villain’s suit. He stumbled, but managed to kneel up against the brick wall of the building. The skull guy didn’t fare so well. He looked dizzy, slowly moving back towards the ground. 

Roman grinned, a hand over his heart as he dropped the slingshot he had just conjured. “Thank goodness you’re alright, Remus. I almost took your entire face out.”

Remus grinned, staying up in the wall and giving his brother a thumbs up. 

Roman approached skull guy slowly. He was kneeling on the ground now, and appeared injured, but Roman couldn’t be too sure. He drew his sword, standing a few meters in front of him.

As Roman did this, his brother watched from a couple of stories up, prepared to run down and fight if the villain made a move. 

Then, something caught his eye. Remus looked up, frowning. It seemed that a new challenger was approaching. 

Someone was standing on the roof of the Utopia Cafe. It appeared to be a man, wearing a black cloak, with a black and silver supersuit. The hood of his cloak covered most of his face, with a white mask peeking out on the bottom of his face. There were something written on this mask, but Remus couldn’t read it. And, most notably, there were two large, goatlike horns coming out of the sides of his head, poking out from holes in the hood of his cloak. 

Remus whistled, squinting as he tried to get a good look at this guy. He climbed up the wall he stuck to, forgetting what was going on below and trying get closer to this guy. 

Roman watched as the skull guy looked up at him, the mask covering his face making his expression unreadable. He sat up a bit more as Roman got closer, scrambling back a few feet. As he tried to stand up, Roman gripped his sword. “H-Hey, stay where you are, villain!”

Roman began moving closer to the villain on the ground, when he was stopped by a loud shout, by Remus. He jumped slightly, jerking back as someone landed directly in front of him. 

Roman’s eyes widened as he was lifted from the ground by the taller, horned villain in of him, and tossed backwards onto the hard concrete. In his peripheral vision, he could see Remus jump down from the roof, standing right next to him. 

Janus watched this from across the street, pressed against the side of a building. She had been frozen, unsure of what to do, her thoughts muddled and too fast to hear. 

But, something snapped when she saw Roman be thrown. She saw Roman on the ground, and this larger, intimidating man in front of them, and her feet started to move on their own. Without thinking, Janus began running towards them. 

She didn’t feel her body changing as she ran. She didn’t notice as her body began to shift and grow, scales and claws and a tail manifesting. 

She ran right between the horned man and the twins. She now towered over them, her skin coated in dark scales. She had a long, thick tail, with sharp claws and teeth.

Janus narrowed her yellow, reptilian eyes, leaning in closer to the horned man’s face as she let out a strange mixture of a growl and a shriek, her body trembling. She watched as he quickly held a hand up, touching her chest quickly before pulling his hand right back. 

Janus looked up at his face, a wave of exhaustion slamming into her body. She slowly sunk down to her knees, her eyes still on his face. His hood still covered most of his face. 

Before she blacked out, Janus squinted, reading the word scribbled onto the white mask over his mouth. “Sleep”. Huh.

The horned man stepped backwards as the lizard person passed out, grabbing skull guy and tugging him to his feet. He pulled him close, taking one last look at Roman and Remus. And then, they were... gone.

A portal opened up in the street. A dark, blue, glowing, portal. It sucked the two villains in, and as quickly as it arrived, it had completely disappeared. If the twins had blinked, they probably would have missed it. 

The twins didn’t move for several seconds. Remus sucked in a breath, watching the spot where the two villains had just disappeared from. Then his eyes focused on the lizard person passed out on the ground, and he leaned down, tugging Roman to his feet without really looking at him. 

“Well, shit.” Remus glanced at his brother, walking over to the 7 foot tall beast in front of them. “Let’s.. let’s get us all out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is took longer than it should have, and probably has a lot of mistakes. It’s also kind of,,, bad, whoops


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus got powers now— woo hoo

((June 13th, Year 2))

Roman and Remus were able to get the lizard person back to their home. 

Roman thought it was an absolutely terrible idea, but Remus insisted. Roman could not deny that the creature seemed to be trying to protect them, and was curious about what/who this was. So, while the streets were empty, they managed to carry the lizard person over to Remy’s car. 

Were they technically stealing their friend’s brother’s car? Yes. But was it for an okay reason? They sure thought so.

So Roman drove them back to his home. They parked in the garage, climbed out of the car, and waited for the lizard person to wake up. 

They stood on the other side of the garage, behind the car. Roman held a baseball bat that he has conjured, keeping a close eye on the car. Remus watched him, making a face. 

“What do you think you’re gonna do if it attacks you? You think you’re gonna hurt it with that thing?”

“Well, I’m not going to point a gun at the scary lizard person, Remus!” Roman whisper-shouted, waving the bat around in his hand as he spoke. 

Suddenly, the lizard creature started moving, and Roman almost jumped into his brother’s arms.

Janus sat up a little, frowning and taking a slow look around. She was still pretty out of it, her head feeling kinda of fuzzy. She was definitely in a car. In the twin’s garage?

She carefully got out of the car, leaning against the door to keep herself balanced. She started to look around, trying to figure out where she was, when she saw Roman and Remus gaping at her. 

Roman and Remus watched as the lizard person stepped out of the car, and turned to stare at them. Then, the lizard smiled a little, before slowly starting to shift back into a human form. Back into Janus’ form. 

Roman will deny this later, but he definitely screamed. 

Janus tried to step back when Roman yelled, stumbling and leaning back against the car door. “Wha-What?” She looked between the twins, then turned and looked behind her. 

“Holy shit.” Remus hurried over to Janus, standing in front of her and glancing her over. “Holy shit, J. You’re like us.”

Janus make a face at Remus, standing up a bit straighter and brushing hair from her eyes. “Guys, cmon, are you trying to be funny? You fucking scared me, Roman. What happened?” She asked, looking at Roman as he started moving closer, leaning forward against the front of the car. 

Janus then stopped, taking a second to try and remember what had just happened. Her memory was kind of fuzzy, but it was coming back to her. She started stepping towards the twins, then stopped as her head started to spin. She swallowed, shutting her eyes. 

“Shit. Uh... what, what’s going on? What happen?” Janus asked, then carefully began sitting back in the car, shifting around and resting her head against the seat. 

To fix the awkward positioning of them all, Roman and Remus went and got in the car as well. Roman sat in the back, next to Janus. Remus sat backwards in the passenger seat, wrapping his arms around the back of it and resting his chin against the side. 

“Do you not remember?” Roman asked as he shut the car door, turning to face her. He frowned, examining her face. 

“I remember that we were at the cafe, and.. you guys.. you guys are idiots.” She whispered, snorting. “You tried to fight this guy, I-I guess. Why did you do that? What were you thinking?” 

“We didn’t.” Roman rubbed the back of his neck, glancing over at Remus. “We just kind of went for it. But.. I think it went well. We almost had that guy, J.”

Remus nodded a few times, pressing against the seat. “If that other guy hasn’t of shown up..”

Janus frowned, then nodded slowly. “Yeah. Another guy showed up.” She reached into her jacket pocket, pulling our her phone. Janus frowned as she realized the time, it had been a couple of hours since they left for the cafe. She unlocked it, and started looking through social media, and her news app. 

Roman glanced at his brother as Janus scrolled through her phone, biting his lip. “Yes, and.. well, you turned into that big, scary monster.”

Janus stopped, frowning as she stared at the pictures on her phone. People that was in the area had been uploading them online, of the villains, and heroes, and even the ‘big, scary monster’ that Roman had mentioned. And that’s when what happened fully clicked in Janus’ mind. 

“I... turned into a big lizard?” Janus looked up at the two of them. Roman nodded slowly, and Remus grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

She sat up a bit more, as her dizziness began fading. “Did one of you did that? Or one of those other guys?”

Remus grinned, leaning forward between the two front seat to get closer to her. “Nope! I think that was you, J! You’re like us!” Remus whooped, throwing his hands up and smacking them against the car roof. 

Janus laughed slightly, glancing away and covering her mouth. Remus grinned. “You were so fucking cool! But you should of just transformed back earlier, J. We had to drag you all the way into Remy’s car. Then we had to steal said car— it was a whole ordeal.”

“Shut up, that’s not what’s important right now!” Roman waved a hand at his brother, shaking his head. “This is actually serious! Janus, that was— that was really cool. You were amazing.”

“I..” Janus looked down at her hands, furrowing her eyebrows and trying to get her mind to focus. “I don’t know about this... we can’t even be completely sure that was me.”

That was a lie. Janus was sure. She could feel something new inside of her, something that had always kind of been there, but now she had... unlocked. It was hard to describe, but it was power. 

“Then.. try to transform again!” Roman suggested. “We can go in the house so we have some space. Our parents shouldn’t be home for..” he didn’t finish that sentence, as he got out of the car, grinning at Janus. “I’ll be fine. Are you alright? Do you need a hand getting inside?”

Janus opened her door, waving him off. She felt a bit better now, and even if she was still dizzy, she wasn’t going to tell Roman that. 

The three of them headed inside and up to Roman and Remus’s bedroom. Janus sat down on the edge of Roman’s bed, while the other two stood around and watched her. 

It was.. awkward, and made Janus kind of nervous. But, she closed her eyes, and tried to focus on that power she could feel. When she had first done this, she hadn’t been trying to, it had just... happened. So she was struggling to find the right way to make it happen. 

Roman paced around a bit, holding Jean in his arms, petting her slowly. He glanced at Janus every few seconds, waiting for something to happen. He didn’t want to interrupt, it wasn’t easy for Remus and him at first either. But they had figured it out rather quickly. Once you use the power a couple of times, it gets much easier. At least, in their experience. 

It took Janus a minute of squeezing her eyes shut and shifting around, but she did start to change. She changed into that large, lizard person form again. She slowly opened up her eyes, looking down at herself. 

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she almost immediately transformed back into her normal self, frowning and curling up slightly. “Shit...” she whispered, looking up at the twins. What was going on was starting to finally sink into Janus’ mind. It took everything in her not to cry out in frustration; she didn’t want this! She’s never wanted this.

“This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, J.” Roman tried to reassure her. He spoke slowly, trying to read her expression. He attempted to put himself in her shoes, and try to imagine what she was feeling right now. But that’s so much easier said than done. 

Janus has struggled for a long time just to have a normal life. She doesn’t like to talk about it, but Roman’s not stupid. She works as hard as she can at school, tries to take care of herself, is really good to Roman and Remus. Roman wouldn’t want to take all of that work away from her. ya 

“Look, there’s something going on here. There are supervillian‘s in our city, and we’ve gotta protect it. I mean... Remus and I do. We’ve already decided that. You don’t have to do that too....”

“But I have to.” Janus interrupted, taking both of the twins by surprise. Roman gestured for her to continue, but Janus just shook her head. 

“I have to now. I can’t let you two dumbasses do this own your own.” She whispered, refusing to make eye contact with either of them. “You—“

Before she could contribute, Janus’ phone began buzzing. She was getting a call, the name “REMY”, and selfie she and Remy had taken last summer, lighting up her screen. She answered it, gesturing for the twins to be quiet. “Hey?”

A loud sigh of relief could be heard from the phone. “Girl, where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you for, like, hours.” He sounded pretty serious; at least more serious than Janus was used to. “Where did you run off to? Are you guys okay?”

“Yeah, I.. I’m really sorry. We panicked and ran off to the boy’s place. Well we... we borrowed your car. And I was really shaken up and ended up falling asleep.” 

“Mhm.” Remy hummed, not really sounding convinced. “You need to get back home, Janus. Your mom is freaking out. I’ll come over there for the car later. Bye, Janus.”

“Y-Yeah, okay, Rem. Thanks.” She hung up the phone, shoving it into her pocket. “Guys, I have to go. And you really need to return my brother’s car.

Janus got up and fled the room as quickly as possible, ignoring Roman’s questions of if she needed a drive home. She needed to be alone. 

This was too much. New situations, people, emotions, being able to get outside of her own head.. these were things that were difficult for her. And she understood that completely. 

Being a superhero? This required her to do all of these things. Things that she knew that she couldn’t. 

But like she said earlier, she had to. 

Did Janus really want to be a superhero? No.

Was she doing this for the greater good? Was she doing this to protect the city? Was she doing this to help the police and whoever else would have to deal with these villains if she didn’t? Hell no. 

Janus was doing this for one reason. Well, two reasons. 

And those reasons were Roman and Remus. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Virgil stumbled out of Logan’s portal, falling back down onto his knees. He took a few shallow breaths, quickly tugging the mask he wore off of his face. 

Logan and Patton were both standing in front of him, both with very different expressions. Patton looked very worried, shifting and looking Virgil over. Logan was more stoic, but Virgil could tell that they were annoyed. 

Virgil slowly got to his feet, swallowing. “I’m sorry.” He glanced around, tugging at one of his jacket sleeves. “That went... that went really badly.”

“It’s okay, kiddo. Don’t worry. Um.. none of us excepted other superhumans to show up. Logan was keeping an eye on things, but they didn’t tell me much... can you tell me what happened? There were three of them?”

Virgil nodded. “Yeah. Um, I was trying to fight two of them, and after Bifrons showed up to help, the third one just ran up out of nowhere. Scared the shit out of me.”

“Hey, language. How about I make some tea, and you can tell me all about it, okay?” Patton took Virgil by the arm, and started leading him out of the room. “Do you too want any?” He called back. 

“No thank you, Mr. Hart.” Logan sighed, shaking their head. “Bifrons?”

Remy pulled back his hood and took off his face mask, shaking his head as he watched Patton and Virgil leave. Then he turned to Logan. 

“What the fuck was that, Logan? You guys didn’t tell me about this— Virgil ended up taking people right outside where I work; my sister was there. And it sure wasn’t fucking easy to change clothes and go help him before he could get himself caught.” Remy tossed his cape and mask onto an empty table, crossing his arms. 

Logan swallowed, putting their hands up. “We are aware that we made a... rash, and irresponsible decision. And I apologize, I should not have let them go through with it. Im very sorry that happened; I’ll do my best to make sure it doesn’t again.”

Remy ran a hand through his hair, shutting his eyes and humming. “What were you planning to do if those heroes didn’t turn up? Just attack a bunch of random people and leave?” He huffed in frustration, leaning against the back wall of Logan’s office. 

“Mr. Hart was convinced that Shewell needed some real world experiences to help him train. I didn’t completely agree with the plan, but I trust Mr. Hart, and I trust in Virgil’s control of his abilities. No one was going to get hurt. We obviously did not anticipate those other superhumans to show up...”

“Yeah, I was there. I know.” He adjusted his sunglasses, pulling them down slightly and staring at Logan over the frames. 

“Also, we’ve been friends for years, Lo. You can call me by my name.” He smirked, shaking his head. 

“As this is a work environment, I thought it would be more appropriate..” Remy reaches over and put a finger to Logan’s lips, standing up straight and collecting his mask and cape from the desk. 

“I know, babes. Listen, I think we should slow down, anyway. You let Virgil get the hang of his powers, I’ll try to find out more about those guys that attacked him. It’s summertime; y’all need to chill.” 

Logan cleared their throat and adjusted their tie, glancing away from Remy. “We can talk about it in more detail with Mr. Hart later. For now... would you like to go for a walk, Remy.” 

Remy grinned, taking Logan by the arm and pulling them out of the room. “Sounds like a plan, sugar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Logan and Remy is really fun, guys  
And also I don’t like asking for comments,, but I would literally love and appreciate you forever if you left one <3


	5. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dee is gay and Logan gets bullied by children

((September 4th, Year 2))

Summer went by in the blink of an eye for Janus Bifrons. Most of it was spent with Roman and Remus Regulus, his best friends, doing normal teenage stuff. They hung out, played video games, went to the movies, drove out into the woods to drink and make stupid decisions. Usual stuff. 

The rest of it was spent learning how to control his newfound superpowers, which he was getting the hang of now. It took him over a week to learn that he could shape shift into things other than a big lizard, so that’s what he’s best at currently. 

But now the summer is over, and it’s time for all three of them to go back to high school. 

The three of them met at their picnic table before school, guarding it from any freshman that dare try and come near. Soon after that, the bell rang, and the three of them had to split up. 

Janus was a grade ahead of the twins, a senior, and didn’t take any of the same classes they did. Janus went to his new homeroom to grab his schedule, and then he was off to his first class. Food Science 12. It technically counted a science, which Janus was not a huge fan of. Besides, it was a large classroom (it was both a classroom and a kitchen) and there were less than 15 people in it. Janus could sit by himself, in peace. 

Janus was one of the first kids there, immediately heading towards the back and taking a seat in the right corner. The large desks were doubled up, so that people could sit in pairs. Janus was having none of that. He pulled out the plastic blue chair next to him and plopped his bag in it. Then he started to examine his schedule further and take a picture of it on his phone, waiting for the teacher and other students to show up. 

Just as Janus started to check a text from Remus, he felt a presence standing over him, and looked up. 

A kid around his age smiled back at him, mindlessly scratching at the straps to their school bag. Janus started for a second, trying to remember their name, before realizing that he had never seen this person before. 

“H-Hi, I’m Emile, they/them, nice to meet you.” The kid smiled, holding a hand towards Janus. “Sorry if I’m bugging you, I just really like your hair.”

Janus blinked, glancing up slightly, at the hair that he could see in the corner of his vision. He had shaved off a lot of his hair during the summer, and had dyed the rest of it yellow. Not for any real reason, he just felt like it. He also noticed that Emile’s hair was dyed, a faded bubblegum pink. 

Janus was at a loss for words for some reason, but managed a “thanks”. 

Emile actually giggled at that, moving a hand up to their chin. They were wearing round, white glasses, a very cozy looking tan sweater. Janus could only describe what he was feeling as ‘gay panic’ 

“Um, what’s your name?” 

“Uh, Janus.” Then, without thinking, Dee lifted his back off of the seat neck to him, dropping it on the floor behind him. Emile took that as an invitation to sit down next to him, crossing one leg under the other. 

“Well, it’s lovely too meet you, Janus!”

That’s when Emile has to stop, because their teacher came into the classroom. It was the first class on the first day, so it was nothing special. Janus and Emile whispered to each other a lot during it, and Dee learned these things. 

Emile had just moved to town with their father, and this was their first day here.  
Emile loved cartoons. They was trying to hide that, but when Janus said the word “quartz” Emile basically exploded into a puddle of Steven Universe word vomit.  
Emile was absolutely adorable. 

Janus ended up vaguely inviting Emile to hang out with him and the twins at lunch, and really hoped that they noticed. 

He tried not to think about that during his other classes, trying to actually focus on the teachers when they explained things. But Janus was never great at that anyway, so he was at a disadvantage. He had a lot of his mind. Supervillains who could attack at any time, wondering how his snakes were doing, and cute new kids had priority in his brain. 

Luckily, Emile did show up for lunch. Roman and Remus were confused when some random kid came up to their lunch table, but Janus speaks up before either of them could say anything. 

Janus grinned at Emile, gesturing to the empty spot across from him, next to Remus. 

“Glad you could make it. Roman and Remus, this is Emile. Emile, these are the the twins.” Janus took another bite of the apple in his hand, leaning forward and resting his chin on his hand. 

Emile didn’t sit down right away. They took a moment to look over the twins, staring at Roman for a few seconds, and then Remus. Then they smiled, sitting down and fidgeting with their hands. 

“Ah, it’s wonderful to meet you, Emile.” Roman smiled, reaching an arm across the table to shake hands. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before, where are you from?” 

Janus rolled his apple around in his fingers, tuning out Roman’s small talk as he watched people on the other end of the school, at the basketball court. There was some jock guys yelling and aggressively playing basketball, and a few people sitting at the picnic tables surrounding them. 

The people at the table were pretty far away, so he couldn’t pick out any of them individually. Except for one. 

Janus recognized the boy standing next to the picnic table, talking to some girl. He was short, round, covered in freckles, and wearing mostly pastels. Patton was kind of hard to miss. 

The girl that Patton was talking to pointed towards their picnic table, and Patton and Janus made eye contact. Janus frowned as Patton began jogging towards them, bundle of papers in hand. 

Emile was the first person other than Janus to notice Patton, followed by Roman. Roman was the only one observant enough to notice Emile’s expression. Their eyes widened slightly when Patton approached, and they looked nervous. 

Patton stopped once he reached the table, smiling and waving at everyone. “Hey guys! I hope you all had a good summer.” He chirped, looking around the table. 

Roman smiled at Patton. The two of them were fairly close friends, though Patton was a busy guy, and Roman hadn’t seen much of him for the past year. “Yeah, it was great, Pat. How about you?”

“Oh, it was nice, thank you! I was working, so it was very busy.” Patton giggled, looking away from them and picking at the edges of the papers in his hands. “So, um, I brought some things for Emile here. Ms. Adams forgot to give these to you.” He smiled, then held out the papers towards Emile. 

Emile smiled and took them from Patton, setting them down next to their lunch. “Oh, thanks a lot! It’s nice to meet you.”

“Oh, yes! It’s nice to meet you to! My name is Patton.” He giggled, holding a hand out. Emile shook his hand. 

“Emile Picani; they/them.” 

Patton let go of them, setting his hands down against the edge of the table. “I know being new can be kind of scary, but if you ever need anything or have any questions, you can ask me! And I wrote my number on one of those papers, just in case!”

Emile glanced down at the papers, smiling. “Oh, you didn’t have to... thanks so much.”

“Oh, it’s absolutely no problem! I’m happy to help!”

The two teens giggled and smiled at each other. Remus looked at his brother across the table, nudging him with his foot and pretending to gag. 

Janus glanced at Roman and Remus, biting his lip. Then he looked up at Patton. “Hey, cotton candy? You wanna sit down?”

Patton perked up slightly, eyes shifting to Dee. “Huh? Oh, I wouldn’t want to intrude on you guys.”

“Nah, sit.” Janus gestured to where the biggest empty spot was, which was next to himself. 

Patton hesitated before saying a small “thanks” and sitting down. 

Roman took a sip of his water bottle. “Where do you anyways, Pat?” 

“Oh! I just work as like a secretary downtown. It’s really boring.” He chuckled, taking off setting his schoolbag down on the ground next to him. He took out a small lunch bag, humming softly to himself. 

Janus watched Patton out of the corner of his eye. Patton smiled as he took out a small container of grapes, tilting his head and sticking out his tongue as he tried to open it. 

Janus watched him struggle with the container for a few seconds before turning to him and holding out his hand. When Patton noticed, looked up, before slowly handing it to him. Janus popped it open and handed it back to him, and Patton giggled and tried to hide a grin. 

“Oh, thank you so much, Janus..”

Janus hummed, leaning forward against the table. “It’s literally the first day and I’m exhausted.”

Roman chuckled, shaking his head. “We’re getting coffee after school. You’ll be fine after that.” He turned to Patton and Emile. “We were going to go to a cafe, Utopia, after school. You’re welcome to come if you would like.”

“Oh, that sounds really nice.” Emile smiled, glancing at Patton, who shook his head. 

“I would love to, but I actually have work.” 

“Ah. Maybe some other time then.” Roman smiled, nodding. “It’s a lovely place. J’s brother works there, and there’s no weirdos around. At least, not anymore.” He chuckled. 

“What do you mean by that?” Emile tilted their head slightly. 

“Oh, he’s talking about Logan.” Janus snorted, shaking his head. “You guys will never get over that, will you?”

“Oh, um, who’s Logan?” Patton frowned, popping a few grapes into his mouth. 

Remus grinned, sitting up on his knees and smacking his hands down on the table. “Okay, here’s the tea. Logan was this guy that used to go here a few years ago. He was here for like 2 years with J’s brother, Remy. Logan was like crazy smart, and really weird. They were in band together.”

“So, anyway, there were like a lot of weird rumours about Logan. A lot of people thought he had some kind of weird superpower, and stayed away. Super sketchy, stoner guy. Remy had some real weird encounters with him. And he hung around Utopia like all the time, and so did Remy, Janus, and Virgil. 

Roman, Janus, and Patton all kind of shifted and glanced away from Remus when he brought up Virgil, but he kept going. 

“And being the feral bastard middle schoolers Dee and Virgil were, they decided to bully this poor man.”

“We didn’t bully him, that makes me sound bad.” Janus smacked Remus on the arm. “We just... said some shitty things. That was a long time ago. And he freaked at us, man. He started like yelling and making a scene in the cafe. I was two seconds away from hitting him. And then he just fucking bolted. He left his laptop, didn’t come back for that.” Janus laughed a little, running a hand through his hair. “Shit, that was so bad. I’ve seen him like once since then? Fuck.”

Patton frowned, tilting his head. “You guys were kind of mean.”

“Yeah, but what can you do? And he was nuts anyway.” Janus said. 

“I-I just mean.. we shouldn’t be talking about people behind their backs...” Patton shrugged, biting his lip. “The bell’s about to ring, I should probably get going. I’ll see you later guys, have a good day!” His expression quickly changed to a cheery smile, and he got up and started to walk away very quickly. 

Emile frowned, checking their phone. “Oh, he’s right. Um, I’ll meet you guys after school then?” They smiled, getting up from where they sat. 

“Here.” Janus turned and reached over, holding a slip of paper between his fingers. “My number. Text me.”

“Ah, okay! Thanks Janus!” Emile didn’t move for a couple of seconds, before realizing they should take the paper. Then they giggled, waving to the three of them before running off 

Janus watched them go, sighing. “Shit.” He mumbled, looking over at the twins. “They’re both really hot. You notice that?”

Remus hummed, shrugging. Roman rolled his eyes. 

“I think I might have to start hanging out with them more.”

Roman pretended to look offended, doing a loud, dramatic gasp. “JJ, I can’t believe you’re replacing us with those pastel nerds!”

The bell rang, and Janus got up, stretching his arms out. “Mhm. Later, bitches.”


End file.
